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Berceuse in D flat major, Op 57

Introduction

A few months before he completed the B minor Sonata, Chopin put the finishing touches to his Berceuse Op 57. The original title was Variantes, and this describes its final form rather well: a set of sixteen short variations on an ostinato ground (there is a sketch of the work that lays this structure out rather graphically, even numbering the ‘variantes’). Another interesting detail here is that Chopin originally intended to plunge straight into the melody, and only added the two-bar genre-defining introduction at a late stage, quite possibly at the moment he changed the title from Variantes to Berceuse. In some ways the work functions rather like a set of baroque ‘divisions’, but this scarcely does justice to the highly original treatment of the ornamental line. The key point is that the curve of complexity (ever more rapid filigree) remains divorced not just from the underlying harmonic progression (a simple repeating cycle) but also from the dynamic shape (a stable level, remaining in low dynamics throughout). What is original here is that the shape of the music—its sense of departure and return—is created almost entirely through texture and sonority. It is not hard to see why Debussy was so interested in the music of Chopin.

Recordings

'Rosenthal had an inimitably seductive manner of playing … with Ward Marston’s superb restoration and remastering, APR’s exemplary annotation and ...'The artistry of Moriz Rosenthal (1862-1946) arguably stands head and shoulders above all recorded Liszt pupils' (ClassicsToday.com)» More

'You will be hard pressed to find playing of such super-fine precision and sensitivity. This is undoubtedly one of the most crystalline and exclusive ...'Demidenko's free-flowing virtuosity in such comparitive rarities as the Allegro de concert and Tarantella carries all before it, perfectly off ...» More

Stephen Hough joins the celebrations for Chopin’s 200th birthday with a disc containing much of the composer’s most extraordinary music, written in the last years of his life where the possibilities of his art were constantly unfolding as he imbue ...» More

In this latest recording the great Marc-André Hamelin turns his attention to two mainstays of the Romantic repertoire: Chopin’s Piano Sonatas Nos 2 and 3. The results are simply staggering: playing of matchless brilliance and consummate artistry, ...» More

In this latest recording the great Marc-André Hamelin turns his attention to two mainstays of the Romantic repertoire: Chopin’s Piano Sonatas Nos 2 and 3. The results are simply staggering: playing of matchless brilliance and consummate artistry, ...» More

Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. This monumental recording project—first instigated by t ...» More

'Listening to Joyce is strangely addictive. One cannot wait, as it were, to read the next chapter. She shares with Kreisler and Tauber the same unteac ...'The quality that comes across in these performances is the sheer joy of playing. Joyce possessed a formidable technique and an interpretative mind th ...» More

Vassily Sapellnikoff (1868–1941) and Xaver Scharwenka (1850–1924) were among the earliest generation of pianists to record, and on this ground alone it is surprising that their complete recordings have never before been transferred for modern list ...» More

Composed in 1843 and revised the following year, Chopin’s Berceuse in D flat major – with the barcarolle the pinnacle of his lyric art – has been described by Hedley as ‘one of those happy inspirations which can never be repeated’. Akin to the world of the nocturnes, its structure is a one-off, a set of sixteen variantes cradled by rocking tonic/dominant harmonies resting above a comfortingly repetitive tonic pedal-point. Extraordinary static calm is the impression of its tonal landscape (which, apart from a subdominant reference at the end to reinforce the home key, never once leaves D flat). Tracing, like Baroque ‘doubles’, arcs of climax and repose, of quickening and slowing note values, of changing motion against an unchanging pulse, its heart enshrines a poetry to defy analysis: ‘Who will cut open the nightingale’s throat to discover where the song comes from?’